Glass fibers have been commonly incorporated in thermoplastic molded objects and other cured plastics for added strength and durability. The glass fiber is introduced in a mold where resinous plastic is then injected such that the glass fibers become imbedded into the final formed object. It has been found advantageous to form a preform of the final object out of glass fibers and place the preform into the mold. The glass fibers are often chopped and blown onto a preform screen. Immediately following the fiber placement, a binder agent is sprayed on and allowed to cure which sets the fibers in place. The fiber may be a commercially available liquid thermoplastic resin or may be a binder powder. Such binder powder is described in copending patent application entitled IMPROVED METHOD OF FORMING A PREFORM WITH THE USE OF POWDER BINDER, Ser. No. 07/865,238 filed on Apr. 8, 1992, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The curing of the binder has been a separate step that is sequentially commenced after the fiber has been sprayed and the binder applied to the screen. Often the cure step is accomplished at a separate work station. The screen assembly is physically moved to the cure work station where hot air guns apply heated air to the binder and fibers to cure the material into a set preform.
The sequential step of heating the binder after application is time consuming and demands added space for the extra work station. The added space and extra time greatly adds to the expense of preform manufacture. What is needed is a process that eliminates the separate cure step in forming a preform and provide simultaneous curing as the binder and fibers are being applied.